Kelne nodded, "It might be possible to track it, but I wouldn't count on it. As to how this thing's managing what it is, I couldn't tell you."

His full attention wasn't on the conversation, however. He was making a careful inspection of the surrounding vicinity for any small minds which might be nearby. He had yet to encounter a city without rats, and they would make admirable spies.

Dia began to frown at Jak's original comment, which turned into a scowl.

"What's with that stupid grin on your face?" she snapped. "I don't find the idea very comforting, myself."

She paused, before continuing, slightly more composed. "I know some amount of mental magic--it...runs in the family. I don't really train in it, too much, though, so much as pick it up in bits and pieces, here and there. Trial and error. Still, when I scanned the coyotes, the type of magic on them was familiar enough. I tried to trace it back to the caster, but it was just disappating too quickly. If it weren't for the astral here, I probably wouldn't have been able to sense anything, even the type."

She paused, poking at Fluffy's stomach.

"I know it makes it harder to cast spells, but I wonder if it wouldn't be easier on the other hand to maintain spells--less interference and all--if a caster was skilled enough in the field. Or had another source of mana to pull from."

Kelne considered this, "There may be something to that," he said, "Certainly our own gear shows no signs of deteriorating here. Once you get something to the point where it's self-sustaining, it should keep right on going without further input." He frowned, "Still, mental domination tends to be a more active process. Remove or disrupt the magic, and the subject goes back to normal."

"There is one possibility, though. Given enough time and effort, people can be conditioned to be more receptive to 'suggestions' from certain quarters. Given that conditioning, all you'd need to exercise effective control would be a mental link. It wouldn't even need to be a particularly strong one, depending on the complexity of the commands, and how much they conflict with the subject's basic nature."

People might wonder how Kelne knew so much about compulsion. If he had his way, they'd go on wondering. The episode in his history that had set him researching it wasn't one of his prouder moments.

"As for the distance issue, I wouldn't count on that being a limiting factor. I can think of one way that could be gotten around without being insanely powerful, and I'm sure there are others." It seemed that 'having no idea' was a fleeting state of affairs for Kelne.

"So, rather than a powerful mastermind, we may just have some run of the mill mentalist with too much time on his hands. Well, that gives us something to run with. I wonder if the locals know anything about the magically adept in the region?

"They didn't seem to know about anything of the sort," Kelne said, "Although they were going to check through the records, see if anything stood out. Our next order of business should be to see what they've turned up. One final point before we head out though," he continued, turning towards Paige, "You are staying in the city this time."

"I don't think that's the best idea, Kelne. Forgetting last night for a moment, the last time we left her with the natives, they tried to alter her mind. Hell, they did it to me as standard medical procedure.

"If you don't like the idea of her being along, then I'll take responsibility for her, or we'll stop off back at the ship with her. But we're not leaving Paige or anyone else alone with the locals."